How to choose your smart home server?
Introduction
In this article, I highlight some different smart home hardware servers solutions and what the difference purposes are. Everybody has different knowledge levels, budget, and functionality wishes. There is no single best solution for everyone. Compare it to buying a car, there is no single car that fits everybody’s needs.
Table of Contents
What is a smart home server?
I read all kinds of different namings for a server which runs your smart home software.
The names I see mostly are: smart home server, homelab.
How do you call it? I call it here a “smart home server”.
I see it as a full (small) computer with:
- A harddisk, memory, and a processor
- A full operating system
- A local protocol to communicate with your smart home devices
Smart home server Pros |
|---|
| * No risk devices are not supported anymore * You can choose you own supported protocols * You can choose your own software * Hardware upgrades are possible All sensor data keeps local |
Smart home server Cons |
|---|
| * You need to make your own backups * You need to update the software yourself * Technical knowledge about hardware and software maintenence |
What is the difference with a smart hub?
A smart home hub usually is a hardware device from a specific brand and only supports that brand (or just a few other ones). You have a corresponding app which can connect to the hub and control your devices. This works also from remote so, via the internet, that means your hub is also connected to the internet via the cloud. It integrates with the cloud Google Echo, Amazon Echo voice assistants.
Examples of smart home hubs are:
- Tuya
- Philips Hue
- Samsung SmartThings
- Xiaomi Mi Home
- Ikea Tradfri
- (LG) Homey
Hub Pros |
|---|
| * Cheap * Easy to setup * Automatic software updates * Integrates with famous Voice assistants * No technical knowledge needed |
Hub Cons |
|---|
| * Limited to some brands * Not extendable * Internet needed * Slower responses * Your data used for commercial purpose * Security risks * Hardware depends on active support of the brand |
Remarks
Do you have any remarks? Suggestions? Spell errors?
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